Why are the majority of oil reserves located in the Northern hemisphere?

Question

It seems that there is much less oil south of the equator. Could someone please give me a scientific explanation for this. Why are the reserves concentrated in the North? Is the Southern oil simply under the ocean, and if so, why does no one talk about it?

I know that most of the world's land mass is north of the equator, but oil forms at the bottom of large bodies of water or areas which were covered by water in the past. Based on this, shouldn't there be just as much oil in the Southern hemisphere. My only theory is that there was less solar energy on that hemisphere so not as much vegetation was available for the decomposition process. Is this correct? Could someone please explain this to me?

Answer 1

About 70% of the earth's land mass lies north of the equatior, so it stands to reason that most of the natural resources reside there too.

Answer 2

Basically the anwser lies in not what has yet to be explored but that which has already been found. Holland was the first country in Europe to recognise a source rock for which oil reserves could possibly be found. The mapping of this layer of rock extened al over hte North Sea, UK, Holland, Denmark and Norway. We are still drilling in these parts and will for some time to come. Given that there is no immediate need to explore parts of the southern hemisphere to the same degree as that in the northern hemisphere yet. What actually governs the viability of exploring in the deep oceans is money. First the oil price has to be right, second there has to be an overall lack of oil production in 'cheaper' sectors i.e. easier to drill (time and money orientated) and then finally the availibility of technology to allow us to drill in such deep waters.
Please bear in mind that what we see now in terms of land mass accumulation was not the same 60-90Ma ago where a large part of the worlds oil reserves are contained with. Thus a reduction in solar energy is not a factor.

Answer 3

There is much more land and associated continental shelves in the northern hemisphere than the southern. It could be that there is much more oil to be discovered in the south though.

Edited Comment in response to additional details:
It is my understanding that oil companies do not expect to find significant oil in deep ocean regions that in general were never part of land masses.

Answer 4

Don't know. One possiblity is that the conditions that create oil were more favorable or abundant in the northern hemisphere. Another possibility is that there are more reserves that haven't been discovered yet in the southern hemisphere.

Answer 5

Good question, but your explanation is wrong. Look at a map of the continents 300 million years ago. Maybe that will help. And don't forget about Venezula, one of the leading oil produces in the world.